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Friday, November 4, 2011

Google Moderator in the Classroom

Mr. Aaron Hammers uses Google Moderator in his
10th Grade Bible class each week. 
Google Moderator is a simple crowd-sourcing tool that makes it possible to better understand the thoughts, idea, questions, or motivations of a group, crowd, or audience. One of the best things about Google Moderator is that it is simple. There aren't many buttons to click and it doesn't overwhelm you with features and options.

For a more detailed overview Google Moderator I would encourage you to read my previous post.

This year my school began a 1:1 iPad program in the high school. We provided our staff with a considerable amount of training on how to use the iPad and possible classroom applications. We did not, however, specify exactly how we wanted teachers to use the iPad in the classroom; we left implementation up to them.

We are now into the second quarter of our school year. The newness of the iPad has worn off and many of our original ideas on how to implement the iPad into the classroom have failed due to technical challenges or overall complexity in a classroom setting. Some idea, however, are going very well, engaging students and extending classroom learning. One such idea is the application of Google Moderator in the Bible class or Mr. Aaron Hammers.

Mr. Hammers uses Google Moderator every week in his 10th grade New Testament Survey class. Student post and vote on questions during the first 15 minute of class. Mr. Hammers then spends the remainder of the class period answer the posted questions in order of popularity based on class voting. View the video below for a glimpse of this process and an interview with Mr. Hammers.


2 comments:

  1. Have you had any problems with students putting up any inappropriate stuff?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the comment, Debbie. I have not had any issues with inappropriate comments from students. I spend some time reviewing what is acceptable and have very clear policies and procedures regarding inappropriate content in my classroom.

    It is possible to moderate posts before they "go live". This requires someone to review and approve posts and eliminates the real-time nature of Google Moderator.

    ReplyDelete

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